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The last couple of times James Reimer stood in net for the Maple Leafs, he absorbed no end of abuse from his team’s supporters. Thrust into the unenviable role as Jonathan Bernier’s reliever during an epic home-ice evisceration at the hands of the Nashville Predators last week, Reimer entered the game after the first intermission down 3-0. The Leafs lost 9-2. A few nights earlier, Reimer was the starter in an ugly 6-2 loss to the Sabres.

So boos rained, and social media was a thunderstorm, and even James’s wife April took Twitter-based abuse — as though she had anything to do with her husband playing in front of a comatose club that chose to abandon a goalie in a tough spot.

“Nothing’s ever to your face. That’s the thing — nothing,” Reimer was saying recently. “You take the crowd. They boo — which is fine, you do what you’ve got to do — but I ran into a handful of people (after the Buffalo defeat) and they’re all supporters. People say, ‘We love you.’ ‘Keep going.’ ‘You’re my favourite.’ It’s all positive to your face . . . People hide behind their keyboards.”

This is one of the difficult things you deal with when you’re a name brand in a hockey mecca, and certainly Reimer’s $2.3-million salary could be counted as amendable hardship pay. But it’s probably not the hardest terrain Reimer is navigating this season. That might be this: never knowing when he’s going to play.

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Since Reimer has largely been used to spell Bernier during back-to-back sets, the current stretch of schedule has made it difficult to guess when he might see action again. It’s been two weeks since the Leafs played on consecutive nights (which accounted for his Buffalo start), and they won’t do it again until Dec. 9 and 10. If Reimer doesn’t get the call before then, he’ll have gone more than three weeks between starts. Faced with similarly long layoffs a season ago, it didn’t often go well.

“You have no idea when your next start will be,” Reimer said Friday. “I’m just working hard in practice, trying to make it known that I’m ready (so) they have confidence to put me in there. That’s all I can do.”

The Leafs, to be frank, need their goaltenders to do more. A season ago, the club looked to have solved its long-time woes in the crease. The off-season acquisition of Bernier, combined with some mostly respectable play from Reimer, put Toronto ninth overall in five-on-five team save percentage at .928.

But 22 games into this season the Leafs have plummeted from the top 10 to the bottom 10 in that important statistic. Heading into Saturday night’s game against the Capitals, Toronto’s five-on-five team save percentage sat at .913, 21st in the 30-team league. A drop from .928 to .913 translates to a difference of about half a goal in a typical game.

A lot of the drop can be attributed to Reimer, whose five-on-five save percentage is down to an unsightly .893 compared to Bernier’s .926. Toronto’s penchant for blowout losses has done big damage to the stats of both goalies. And certainly there are reasons to be optimistic, chiefly the team’s ongoing three-game point streak in which they’ve compiled five points while holding a trio of quality opponents under 30 shots a game. Bernier, for one, approves, even if the Leafs’ new-found defensive conscience has come with an adjustment.

“It does change the way you prepare yourself, and the way you try to keep yourself in the game,” Bernier said. “When you get 40-plus shots, you don’t really think. You’re getting so much work that you don’t have to tell yourself to stay focussed. It’s a different mindset.

“But if we limit them to under 30 shots a night, our chances are pretty good. I feel confident that I can keep (the opponent) to two or less goals a night. And in this league most nights, if you score three goals you’re going to win.”

How have the Maple Leafs suddenly found a way to curtail opposing shot totals after so many years of being haplessly pelted? Head coach Randy Carlyle has said losing two games by a combined 15-4 “crystallized” the team and “woke some people up.” If you’re a fan of more game-specific analysis, defenceman Stephane Robidas is your man.

“It’s a mix of a lot of things,” Robidas said. “We’ve had a really good forecheck, a really good third (forward) high, a really good back pressure. And we’re blocking shots . . . The good forecheck allows you to play more time in their zone. The good third (forward high in the offensive zone) allows you to not give up odd-man rushes. The good back pressure allows the D to stand up more (at the blue line) and make (opposing teams) dump the puck in.”

Whatever the reason, Bernier feels it in his bones and other anatomical parts.

“If you’re facing 40, 50 shots a night (as Leafs goaltenders often have), your body, at the end of it, feels like you played two games instead of one game,” said Bernier, whose body broke down last season, during which he suffered a sprained knee and a sports hernia. “It’s tough to say if (last year’s injuries) would have happened if I had 25 shots a night, but it’s definitely tougher on your body to face more shots. I just feel like we know as a team that if we play that way, we’re going to be successful.”

Reimer, for his part, hasn’t often had the benefit of playing in front of a team that’s found defensive consistency. Such is a simple truth of this season: The Leafs have been as two-faced as some of their fans. At times they’ve looked like a bumbling, gambling wreck en route to the Connor McDavid sweepstakes. At others they’ve resembled an organized and respectable squad fit for the playoffs. One goalie has seen the worst of those identities. Bernier has faced an average of 30.8 shots per 60 minutes, Reimer 35.6.

“It’s never great when you end off on a tough game for everyone. Whenever that happens, you kind of want to get back in there and reset,” Reimer said Friday. “But I mean, hey, it’s in the past. I don’t think I’ve ever had a game where there was so many fluke bounces against me. So I’ve got all of those out of the way for the year now.”

If the baggage of two nightmarish outings is behind him, so too has Reimer come to terms with the dual nature of a sporting populous that’s nasty in cyberspace and nice to his face. To the trolls, he extends both antipathy and sympathy.

“If I have kids, are they going to go after my kids, too? . . . There’s not much you can say. I know that athletes have spoken against people and called them out, and nothing happens,” Reimer said. “Hey, if that’s what people need to do to feel better about themselves then, honestly, I feel sorry for them. It’s too bad.”

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